Audrey Christie (June 27, 1912 – December 19, 1989) was an American actress, singer and dancer.
Early life Christie was born in Chicago, Illinois. She attended a fine arts school in Chicago, but she quit at age 15 after finding success as a performer with the Six Chicago Steppers.
Career Originally, Christie worked as a singer and dancer, starting as a teenager in vaudeville shows, but she later acted in dramatic roles as well. Early roles on Broadway included Follow Thru (1929), Sailor, Beware! (1933), The Women (1936), I Married an Angel (1938), and Without Love (1942). She had a lead role in The Desk Set (1956).
In the 1930s Christie was a favorite of audiences at the Muny Opera in St. Louis when she was "a young girl in a flamboyant costume, roaring toward the footlights on a motorcycle or leaping in a clownish dance routine across the stage."
She performed in the films Keeper of the Flame (1943), Deadline – U.S.A. (1952), Carousel (1956), Splendor in the Grass (1961), The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964), Harlow (1965), Frankie and Johnny (1966), The Ballad of Josie (1967), Mame (1974), and Harper Valley PTA (1978).
Christie acted in several episodes of the anthology TV series Studio One and another TV series, Fair Exchange. During the 1964–1965 television season, she had a recurring role on the situation comedy The Cara Williams Show. In 1975, she appeared on the sitcom Maude, playing the role of Maude's overbearing mother. And on TV's Barney Miller appeared in two episode, 'The Courtesans' as a "Madame", and in the episode 'Old Love' as an overbearing stage mother.
She won a Donaldson Award for her performance in the play The Voice of the Turtle.
Personal life and death She was married to Guy Robertson, also a performer, and they had a daughter.
Her second marriage was to actor Donald Briggs, who predeceased her. They had a son and three grandchildren. Although both of them were from Chicago, they met only when they were in a touring company of the play Without Love. After marriage, they generally maintained separate careers, only occasionally working together on television or in stock theater.
Christie died of emphysema on December 19, 1989, at her home in West Hollywood, California.
Filmography Year Title Role Notes1943 Keeper of the Flame Jane Harding 1952 Deadline – U.S.A. Mrs. Willebrandt 1956 Carousel Mrs. Mullin 1961 Splendor in the Grass Frieda Loomis 1964 The Unsinkable Molly Brown Mrs. Gladys McGraw 1965 Harlow Thelma 1966 Frankie and Johnny Peg 1967 The Ballad of Josie Annabelle Pettijohn 1974 Mame Mrs. Upson 1975 Maude Mother "Florence" Chadbourne 1978 Harper Valley PTA Flora Simpson Reilly
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